Wednesday, August 26, 2015

WMATA plans to help the 16th 14th, 11th, and Georgia Ave buses, cut 5A to Dulles

Some big news on the bus front: WMATA reports that they are planning to increase service on buses that run on 16th, 14th, 11th, Sherman and Georgia Avenues. Specifically these are the S9, 54, 63 & 64 and 79 buses - 16th Street, 14th Street, 11th Street/Sherman Ave and Georgia Avenue, respectively.

They will be adding more buses on most of the lines, while the 54 bus route will be shortened to end downtown, so that more buses will be able to travel the much more popular portion from Takoma through Columbia Heights to McPherson Square downtown. Right now the bus continues from downtown to L'Enfant Plaza.

There's a lot of other changes proposed too for other lines, such as eliminating altogether the 5A which goes to Dulles Airport. Curbed has the full list of changes.

To me, these are good steps, though I wish there were an express bus on 14th Street as well and also eliminate about half the stops, as the buses currently stop on basically every block. Here are the proposed changes.

54 14th Street LineProposed Change: Shorten route by eliminating section between McPherson Square and L'Enfant Plaza; increase how often buses arrive between Takoma and McPherson SquareReason: Too few riders south of McPherson Square and too many between Takoma Station and McPherson Square